The Heights (Al-Ma'aarej)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
ONE who is minded to ask might ask about the suffering which [in the hereafter] is bound to befall 1 The unbelievers-- there is none to avert it-- 2 a chastisement from Allah, the Lord of the ascending steps, 3 The angels and the Ruh [Jibrael (Gabriel)] ascend to Him in a Day the measure whereof is fifty thousand years, 4 But be patient (O Muhammad) with a patience fair to see. 5 behold, they see it as if far off; 6 And We see it nigh. 7 The day the sky becomes like molten brass, 8 and the mountains will become like tufts of wool, 9 And no familiar friend will ask a question of his friend 10 They will be shown each other. The criminal will wish that he could be ransomed from the punishment of that Day by his children 11 his wife, his brother, 12 his kin who sheltered him, 13 and whosoever is in the earth, altogether, so that it might save him. 14 Nay, verily it is a furnace 15 that will strip off the scalp. 16 Calling: "[O Kafir (O disbeliever in Allah, His angels, His Book, His Messengers, Day of Resurrection and in Al-Qadar (Divine Preordainments), O Mushrik (O polytheist, disbeliever in the Oneness of Allah)] (all) such as turn their backs and turn away their faces (from Faith) [picking and swallowing them up from that great gathering of mankind (on the Day of Resurrection) just as a bird picks up a food-grain from the earth with its beak and swallows it up] [Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, Vol. 18, Page 289] 17 And collect (wealth) and hide it (from spending it in the Cause of Allah). 18 ۞ Lo! man was created anxious, 19 when evil visits him, impatient, 20 And, when good befalleth him, grudging; 21 Not so are the prayerful. 22 [and] who incessantly persevere in their prayer 23 And in whose wealth there is a right acknowledged 24 to those who ask [for help] and to the destitute; 25 And those who believe in the Day of Judgment, 26 and go in fear of the punishment of their Lord, 27 For their Lord's displeasure is the opposite of Peace and Tranquillity;- 28 And those who guard their private parts 29 Except with their wives and the bondwomen in their possession, for there is no reproach on them. 30 but any who seeks to go beyond that, it is indeed they who are the transgressors, 31 and who preserve their trusts and their covenant, 32 and those who stand by their testimony 33 And those who of their prayer are observant. 34 Those shall be in gardens, honored. 35